Question

Engineering and Ethics – Week #4 Assignment 1

The Social and Value Dimensions of Technology

Discuss social issues raised by technology regarding privacy and intellectual property.

• Read the Case Study 38: “Software for a Library” from the textbook and answer the questions at the end. Also, discuss the social ethical issues involved in this study and how they can be resolved. (use the template: Evaluating the Case Study)

Explain the terms determinism, optimism and pessimism in evaluating technology with regards to social effects. (Write at least 2 paragraphs for each)

Answer 1

Even if technological developments have paved path to an advanced lifestyle and improved facilities, it is a major threat to privacy. Every company has got data storage and data analysis technology which gather a lot of personal information from individuals. The details of people browsing over website can be easily found and monitored. The behavior of individuals can also be framed easily.

Also strong privacy policies are not followed. Anyone can create a website without permission. Various hacking methods also cause leakage of confidential data. The digital data can also be stored and transmitted easily.

Determinism- This basically gives a relationship between the technology and the society. Its assumed that the social culture Is greatly influenced by the technology. Technological progress lead to social changes.

Also the standard of living varies and thus the day-to-day activities.The means by which people achieve many facilities depends on the technology.

Optimism-It gives a positive relationship between technology and human population. It's said that these technological advancements are required to sustain life as population increase.

Technology will provide an overall improvement in all aspects of life. Also everything become faster and easier. All the positive side of technology are focused here.

Pessimism-It gives a negative relationship between technology and human. It's said technology bring grief and depression to the society.

It's considered technology will result in unemployment and humans become addicted to machines. All the negative aspects of technology are focused here.